


Because I was There!

by Lilsciencequeen



Series: Bitten [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Vampire, And angst, F/M, I can't seem to write a fic without it, Kinda Crack, Kinda fluff, based on a prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 20:45:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4407059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the know it all girl in your British History class finally screams she's a vampire, how should one react?</p>
<p>*EDITTED*</p>
            </blockquote>





	Because I was There!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amazingjemma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazingjemma/gifts).



> +This was requested by AmazingJemma on tumblr (Sorry for the delay!) This is also probably nothing like you had in mind and I am very sorry. I may have gotten extremely carried away with this prompt. 
> 
> +“I'm a history major and i keep getting into arguments with one of my classmates about things because they keep saying I'm wrong so I finally scream, ‘how would you know?!?’ and they're like, ‘because i was THERE!’ and that’s how we all find out that there is a centuries-old vampire taking our British history class” AU + fitzsimmons?
> 
> +I know very little about the American college system so I apologise for any inaccuracies. 
> 
> \+ I may have gotten carried away with this, it's such a great idea.

She would have been perfect except...

"That's not what happened."

The entire class groaned as she went into a massive speech about how the people of Lamia, the small town in 1200 Britain that were learning about, used arable farming as their main source of income, not livestock farming.

"Is there really a difference?" Fitz complained. "I mean, they are _both_ types of farming."

Jemma rolled her eyes. "Yes. It does. Arable farming is crops. Livestock is, well, animals. A major difference in more ways that I can list."

Fitz though for a minute, his blue eyes fixed on her brown ones before finally saying, "Yes, but..." 

Another eyes roll from Jemma. He really hated how she did that, as if she were implying that she knew more anyone else.

"Yes, but" Fitz tried again, not letting her interrupt him again, either by speaking or those eye rolls. "This was over 800 years ago and the documents are old, illegible and the English language has changed countless times over those 800 years look how much it has changed over the past decade even, so there's proof of farming but not specifically what type of farming."

He had a good point, a valid point, Jemma thought. But he still was wrong. Lamia used arable farming for their main income. Not livestock. Vivet dealt with the livestock and the two towns traded. They were extremely advanced with this system for 1200.

Before the argument could proceed any further, Professor Coulson dismissed them. This wasn't the first time that Fitz and Jemma had gotten into an argument and it certainly wouldn't be the last time they wouldn't.

Fitz went off campus for lunch, with Skye and Trip, who were both in his British History class.

"She's so annoying," he complained as they made their way to Subway. "She thinks she's so much better than everyone else simply because she's..." He groaned, not knowing where to go next.

Skye and Trip gave each other a knowing look. 

Fitz, who was walking ahead, didn't notice this look.

"Do you not, like, you know?" Skye prompted, but Fitz hadn't heard her and continued to rant, all the way to the door of the sandwich shop.

Skye just shook her head at how oblivious that Fitz was. Everyone in their class could see there was chemistry between the two of them, both of them failing to see it. Or maybe they did see it, but didn't want to admit it, and instead channeled it into this bitter rivalry. 

After ordering, and taking seats outside, they discussed their plans for the weekend.

"So, Bobbi and Hunter are back together?" Fitz asked, wondering about the couple who were on and off more than a light.

Skye nodded, and mumbled something, but no one understood, due to her mouth being full of bread. She swallowed then tried again once she realised that no one had been able to understand her. “Yeah, they're back together again.” Then Skye’s eyes lit up. “You should come with us! A triple date!”

Fitz shook his head. “There’s no way I am inviting her out with me. Can you imagine what she would be like! She’d point out everything wrong with the film!”

“By yourself?” Skye asked.

Fitz shook his head. “I’m busy this weekend anyway. Working in the garage with Mack.”

“How’s that going?” A voice that was neither Skye’s nor Trip’s asked. Hunter. He had come over to join them for lunch. His course, Physical Education, finished later than theirs, but they were all able to have lunch together most days.

“It's going well, business is really picking up,” Fitz replied.

Hunter nodded at this, glad that Fitz was enjoying himself and that Mack's business was finally picking up.

“Where’s Bobbi?” Skye asked, looking around and finding her friend missing.

Hunter gave a heavy sigh. “She’s still in the lab. Talking to that Brit.”

Fitz’s head snapped around so fast there was a crack. “What did you say?”

Hunter stared at him before proceeding to laugh. “She’s talking to that British girl. The know it all.”

“Jemma Simmons?” Trip offered and Hunter nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, her. They have Advanced Bio-Chem or something together after lunch.”

Confusion swept across the faces of Skye, Trip and Fitz. She was in their British History class, how could she be in Bobbi’s Advanced Bio-Chem class.

Hunter, oblivious to this, asked “What? Did I say something?”

“No, it’s just she’s in our British History.”

Hunter shrugged at this. “Girl’s a genius. At least that’s what Bobbi says.”

“And a know it all,” Fitz muttered under his breath so no one else could hear.

***

The moonlight felt amazing on her skin, it always did. She loved the night. She was a creature of the night.

She was sitting on the window seat of her apartment, the full moon just peeking out from behind the clouds. She sighed as she set down her now cold cup of tea (she was going to need to make another, but really on a night like this, she couldn’t be bothered) and picked up her textbook for her British History class, at all the notes she’d made on it. Correcting all the mistakes that the publishers deemed fit to be allowed in the book. She shook her head, strands of her light brown hair falling from her pony tail. She tucked them behind her ear as she continued to correct the inaccuracies in her text book.

It was past midnight when she heard the drunken giggling and the jokes outside her window. She looked down. She knew those people, well, all but one. But still. She knew those people. Trip and Skye from her British History class and Bobbi from Advanced Bio-Chem. The fourth person had to be Lance Hunter, Bobbi’s ex, or by the looks of it, current boyfriend. She never knew they were back together, but there they were, out dancing under the moonlight at midnight. The streetlights would be turning off soon and that made her happy, the orange glow that was always present in today’s modern society would be gone for a while.

But there was a sadness inside her, a sadness that had always resided in her that she could never get rid of. It had always been there, for so many years, a lingering sadness that she had never been able to place, and now she had.

Loneliness. It was loneliness.

Watching the four of them, people she knew well but couldn’t even call friends, having fun without a care in the world, enjoying their youth in today’s society, she couldn’t help but feel jealous, she envied them. They were all able to do this, so many people were able to do this. And so many people had done this throughout history and so many people would be able to do this. Enjoy their youth. And she hadn’t. And she never would. Her youth had been ripped away from her. Torn away. She could never reclaim it. She said she didn’t want to, but watching the scene unfold beneath her, she didn’t realise just how much she had missed.

And she didn’t realise the tears that were streaming down her face either, as she watched Trip twirl Skye.

***

Fitz spent the entire weekend working at the garage with Mack, for which Mack was thankful for. Business was really starting to pick up, and Mack was glad for the extra hands. He would never have been able to handle it by himself.

At the end of the weekend, Mack had invited Fitz out for a beer at the Playground, as a way of thanking him for all his help this weekend. Fitz told Mack it was no bid deal, that he was just thankful that someone had taken him on, that he was able to be off assistance.

“Any way, how’s that girl? The know it all?” Mack asked at one point, meaning Jemma Simmons. Despite how much Fitz claimed he hated her for being a know it all, Mack thought there was something else, something more to this. He thought Fitz liked her, he saw it as the only explanation for how much he went on about her, which, quite frankly, was a lot.

Fitz rolled his eyes. “Don’t even get me started.”

***

Monday morning rolled back around, bringing with it the crisp autumn breeze that people either hated, or loved. Jemma had gotten into school early that day, and was sitting in the back corner of the room, curled up into her seat.

Which was unusual, Fitz thought as he, Skye and Trip all took their place in the middle of the room. A quick glance at the clock told them that Professor May was running late today.

Skye leaned over and whispered into his ear, “I wonder what’s wrong with her.”

Fitz took another quick glance at Jemma and saw that she looked awful; her eyes were red as though she had been crying. “Should we ask her?” Fitz whispered back.

Skye shrugged. “She doesn’t talk to anyone except Bobbi, according to Hunter. And the only time she talks to us is to argue that we’re wrong…”

Fitz nodded. “Yeah, but still…” He couldn’t finish as just then, Professor May walked into the room, files under her arm, looking serious as ever.

As she went into the lecture on the people of Lamia, Fitz couldn’t concentrate on making notes with his laptop, he kept shooting glances at Jemma every time May turned to write something on the board.

She looked dazed, completely out of it. It wasn’t until he glanced at her half way through the lesson that he noticed she was crying, sobbing silently; tears streaming down her face, clinging to her long lashes.

“Hey!” someone shouted across the classroom. Grant Ward. As soon as he shouted this, everyone could feel the tension in the room. Ward and Jemma had a massive rivalry. She had gotten a place here, even though this wasn’t her first degree (and judging by her intelligence, it wasn’t her last) while Ward’s brother, Christian, a state senator, helped to by Ward his place in the class. Jemma, like many others, found this unfair. There were many who wanted this class and didn’t get it because of Ward. They had the grades for it, had a passion for it, deserved it but they still didn’t get it. Because of him.

During one of the many arguments that she always seemed to have in class, she used this against him. Of course she regretted it after, she shouldn’t have said it. But he wouldn’t accept her apology and had kept up his hatred of her ever since, and had always been trying to cause her grief ever since.

She ignored him, she was ignoring everyone. Thankfully May had picked that up at the beginning of the lesson, and had left her to her own devices, which appeared to be wallowing in her own sadness, but each to their own.

“You not gonna correct anyone today?”

Still no answer from her.

“Thank God, we couldn’t take that anymore!”

Jemma shifted uncomfortable in her seat and May was watching, warning Ward not to go any further.

“Why not?” he shouted, standing up, knocking his chair flying. “She thinks she’s so much better than me! Than all of us! Why? Because she’s smart. And Fitz knows!”

Fitz shrunk down, trying to hide. He should have known that Ward was going to drag him into this argument sooner or later. He had hoped that he would never have been dragged into this argument.

“Does it not annoy you?” Ward asked, his voice now laced with malice. “That she’s always correcting you?”

But Jemma interrupted him, finding her voice. “You don’t understand. None of you do.”

Ward just shook his head, as May told him to leave. “This isn’t high school,” he muttered, slamming the door.

The lesson somehow managed to continue, but there was still an uneasiness in the class. And May made the mistake of thinking that a class debate would be the appropriate way to end the class, putting Jemma and Fitz on opposite teams.

“It will all help us to resolve our differences,” she had said.

And… It didn’t. It had led to an extremely heated debate about the equality of woman in Lamia in 1200. Fitz was arguing that they had less rights, it was 800 years ago, when woman were seen as inferior. Historically, if this were any other place, then yes he would have been right. But Lamia valued the woman, saw them as equal. Saw them for what they were; human beings.

And Jemma had argued otherwise, saying that the texts were old and not all societies were sexist.

“How would you know?” Fitz finally shouted, refusing to be bested once again by her.

“Because I was there!” she screamed back.

The whole class room fell silent. Realising what she just said. They knew about vampires, creatures who could still live in the sun but performed better in the night.

Jemma stood there, breathing heavy as all eyes fell on her. She had kept the secret for so long, moving from place to place when everyone got suspicious of her, and her eternal youth.

She couldn’t take it anyone more, all eyes on her. She fled the classroom.

***

Fitz found her, at the gates of the campus, huddled behind the dumpster, crying. “I’m sorry,” was all he said, and he felt like his apology was useless. He had caused her so much pain, and she probably had suffered more than anyone should ever have to suffer.

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have argued with you.”

“But I argued back.”

She looked up, giving him a sad smile. “But I corrected you.”

“You know Lamia.”

She nodded. “It was my home before, before,” she gestured to herself, not needing to explain any more. “I though here could be my home, at least for a while.”

“You don’t have to leave.”

She shook her head this time. “Will people seriously want their kids living near a monster like me?”

“You’re not a monster.”

“But I am!”

Sobs left her body and he sat down next to her cradling her as she cried. He didn’t know how long the both of them sat there, the day gradually getting darker, one of autumn’s characteristics.

“I…” she began, lifting her head from his shoulder. “I wanted you to hate me.”

He was taken back by this, and as he looked in those brown eyes, ones that had always held so much anger but now held so much sadness, he asked why.

“I saw how you looked at me on the first day, people look at me like that all the time, but I’ve lost so many people. I can’t love anyone. But you,” she sighed, lost in his blue eyes. “You were beautiful and I couldn’t let myself love you. I’ve lost so many people. I couldn’t let myself love, only to lose you.”

With his thumb, he brushed away a lone tear that was making its way down her face. “You like me?”

She nodded. “Who wouldn’t? You’re kind, you’re amazing, and you’re beautiful.” She stood up. “Thank you, Fitz.” She turned and started to walk away.

“Wait!” he called, scrambling to his feet. “Wait! Where are you going?” He reached out and took hold of her arm, gently as she slowed down and turned to face him. His hand slid down her arm, until their hands were together, fingers intertwined.

“Fitz,” she said, her eyes still full of that sadness and pain, and for the first time, he saw just how old her eyes were. Her facial features didn’t give anything away. It was all in her eyes, just how old she was and just how much she had seen. How much she had been through. How much she had suffered. “I’m leaving. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t stay. Here.” He tried to protest, to say that they could discuss her options.

“There’s nothing to discuss.” She shook her head and noticed that his hand was still interlaced with hers.

“Maybe there is,” he suggested.

“What?” she asked, not wanting to let go of his hand, but wanting to leave before any more pain was caused.

“People won’t think you’re a monster.”

“They will.”

“Have you given them a reason to?”

She was silent. “Not here.” She didn’t add the ‘not yet’, the two words that would change everything.

“Then stay.”

“Fitz, I’ve did things. Horrible things that… Things I shouldn’t have. Things you would hate me for, things everyone would hate me for.”

“Then don’t tell me. Or tell me. I don’t care. It’s the past. This is the now. You can start again, create a new identity.”

She seemed to consider this, and he took her other hand in this own. “Jemma, you can do anything. Be anyone. Your past does not have to define you, make you who you are.”

“The past is everything that makes us who we are. We can’t erase such an important part of who we are. And we can’t change it either.”

He had no words for this. “You can start over. You’ve been doing this for years. Making new people.”

She shook her head. “I’ve always been Jemma Simmons. Moving from state to state, country to country. I keep my past similar to what I actually experienced. I can’t erase who I am!”

Thunder rumbled in the distance and rain had started to fall. “I’ve killed people. You, of all people should know that. I’m a vampire.”

“I don’t care. Just please, don’t leave us like you’ve left everyone else.”

“You think I wanted to leave! Do you think I wanted this? Have you ever woken up covered in blood, everyone you though you could trust, wanting you dead?”

He shook his head. “Please give us one chance. You can do good this time.”

“I’ve always tried to do good!” And with that she ran off.

She didn’t see the car.

***

She woke up in a room, smelling highly of disinfectant, and it was white, so white. She looked around, no one was there. She was alone. But what had happened? She was talking to Fitz, outside the campus, behind the dumpster of all places. He screamed her name, then nothing. Just black.

She heard a beeping, a heart monitor. Her heart monitor. She was in hospital. And she had to get out now.

She ripped all the wires and the drips that were embedded in her skin and she ran. She had no weapon (did she need one? She would if she had to fight her way out. She wasn’t staying in this hospital), and she had no idea where she was going. All she wanted to do was to run.

But it was only when she started to run she noticed the pain in her side. Her breathing was heavy and she heard shouts of the nurses behind her, telling her to stop but she couldn’t. She had to leave. Now.

Someone grabbed her around the waist, trying to hold her still but she kept protesting, saying that she had to leave.

“You don’t understand!” she screamed, not caring that everyone was now staring at her. She tried to fight her way out of their grip. She was kicking, screaming, hitting, in a manner that was childlike and desperate but they were stronger than her. “Please,” she begged as darkness once again engulfed her.

***

She went limp in their arms as a nurse called for a gurney to be brought over and she was gently placed on it.

“Why wasn’t anyone with her when she was awake?” the doctor, Simon Tam, asked.

A nurse shrugged. “We were told she wasn’t going to be a problem.”

He just rubbed his face, syringe in the hand that was hanging limp by his side. He was not prepared for this today.

***

She awoke again this time, and was planning on making yet another bid for freedom when a voice advised her not to. She recognised that voice. It belonged to…

“Fitz?”

“Thank God you’re Ok.” He let out a long breath.

“What happened?” She had no memory of what had happened, and she wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know.

“After you ran off from me,” he was only assuming that she remember this much, and he was right, she did. “You, you ran onto the road Jemma. Straight onto the road. And you were hit.”

He shook his head. “You’re OK and that’s all that really matters.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I do care about you…”

“I should be sorry. I… I tried to make you stay when you didn’t want to.”

“I do now. I want to start over.”

He stared at her.

“I want to start over here Fitz. You’re right I could be anyone. I could do anything. I could be anyone.”

“So you want to start over?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Just us to.”

He extended his hand to her, which she took in her own. “Fitz.”

“Simmons.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah...I've no idea. Thanks for reading. Feel free to ask for prompts, I'll try and do them within two days. I didn't incorporate much fact into it as there is so much British History. So anything written in it is about a fictional place and is made up. Also the town I wrote about, Lamia, is Latin (or so Google says) for vampire, and Vivet is live.  
> I might write more, like her backstory if anyone wants it. Simon Tam was in Firefly, another amazing Whedon show I highly recommend.  
> Marvel owns all.


End file.
